About Cisco Corporate Development: This team is responsible for global M&A, Venture Investments, Investment Backed Alliances (IBAs) & Joint Ventures (JVs). We are an active investor with more than 40 investment professionals with deep market and technology expertise located in major geographies, including the US, Europe, Israel, China, Japan, Australia, Singapore and India. Over the last 20 years, Cisco Investments has invested in hundreds of companies across different segments and helped them build to successful IPOs or acquisitions. We currently have an active portfolio of $2B with over 100 direct investments around the world, and we also hold Limited Partner positions in over 40 funds globally. Having invested in over 150 companies and completed more than 190 acquisitions, the team has unparalleled experience and visibility across the high tech industry.

You will be part of Corporate Development team and lead our activities in Japan reporting into the Head of Corporate Development for APJ based in Singapore. This is a multi-dimensional role that will require amongst other things, an understanding of the global tech industry landscape and the tech startup ecosystem in JAPAN, understanding Cisco’s growth strategy and using this to contribute to Cisco Japan’s inorganic growth strategy through Venture Investments, M&A, IBAs or JVs.

The overall work will include inorganic strategy planning as well as deal sourcing and execution, working with and driving cross functional teams during the process. Some of the specific activities will include:

Working closely with the Cisco Japan leader and Product/Eng. organizations

Understanding the tech, startup and investment/deals landscape in Japan. Developing views into specific market and technology segments by working closely with relevant startups, customers, partners, regional leaders and Cisco business units

Evolving the overall inorganic strategy for Japan and an investment thesis and then sourcing investments pipeline and potential partners for IBA/Joint Ventures

Building the business case to execute transactions

Leading due diligence on investment and acquisition opportunities working closely with Corporate Finance, Corporate Legal, Cisco BUs and other cross functional teams.

Representing Cisco on the Boards of portfolio companies and driving the Cisco – portfolio company partnership.

Candidates are expected to bring thought leadership and influencing capabilities as they work internally within Cisco and with the external ecosystem and portfolio companies.

Other critical strengths for the role could be: (1) operational, strategy consulting, or deal experience within the technology market, (2) understanding of market disruptions and emerging technology trends, (3) strong communication and analytical skills, and (4) proven leadership capabilities and the ability to operate successfully in an unstructured, team-oriented environment.

Who You’ll Work With

The Corporate Development team in the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region is responsible for strategic investments, acquisitions and IBAs/JVs to both capture innovation from the region and to fuel the growth of Cisco across APJ. The team focuses on several growth verticals for each geography within APJ as well as key enterprise technology priority areas such as Mobility, Security, Video, Collaboration, Data Center & Cloud, Analytics, Core Routing & Switching, and the IOT apart from others. The team is part of the worldwide Chief Strategy Office organization and collaborates locally and globally with key stakeholders within Cisco – notably APJ Regional Leadership and multiple business units of Cisco.

Who You Are

The candidate should ideally be an MBA from a Tier 1 business school with an undergraduate engineering degree. The person should have a strong interest and passion for the technology industry and the impact technology is creating as an enabler across various verticals. Strategy/consulting experience as well as investment experience in the tech sector will be a plus. The candidate must have led a function and have a deal execution track record in tech industry. A senior professional from the VC, Corporate VC or I-Banking industry who also has strategy and business experience and strong exposure to the tech industry is ideal.

The ideal candidate will be:

Self-starter who has the ability to drive and influence things in unstructured and structured environments working across multi-country teams

Strong experience in venture capital or i-banking, Corporate Strategy/Consulting in leadership positions. And/or business experience in the tech sector with a strong understanding of the VC/Investments Industry

Minimum 2 years of transactional experience in Investments and/or Acquisition

Strong executive presence and leadership potential

Strong analytical and financial skills to work on complex financial models with minimum supervision

Strong industry background/network in the tech and startup ecosystem in Japan

Skills to prepare and present Investment cases for review by the Investment Committee.

Excellent communication and presentation skills in English and Japanese